


No One Can Compare

by Camellia_Bee



Category: Chungha (Musician), Pentagon (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Anxiety, Awkward Crush, Changgu has a hopeless crush on Chungha, Dancing, F/M, Gen, Inspired by Pretty Pretty (Music Video), One Shot, Self Confidence, Unrequited Crush, yes they're all in high school ignore the age differences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:13:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24552151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Camellia_Bee/pseuds/Camellia_Bee
Summary: Changgu is way too shy to approach Chungha, the captain of the school's dance team, and let her know that he has a massive crush on her. Maybe if he picks up one of her interests, he'll be able to talk to her?Turns out, dancing is actually great. Even if his crush is dating someone else, he still wants to be on the team.He just has to convince her boyfriend - the dance team's vice-captain, Kang Hyunggu.
Relationships: Kang Hyunggu | Kino/Kim Chungha
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	No One Can Compare

Changgu’s late for school.

Again.

He really should stop making this a habit, but the extra few minutes of sleep are so tempting, and he doesn’t like riding the bus anyway, he really prefers walking (it’s usually more like desperately jogging, but the specifics don’t matter), and… well, She’s always late. That’s the real kicker.

She’s not there when he steps into the line, holding his backpack above his head (he doesn’t see the point of making them do this instead of letting them go to the first class of the day, they could still learn something even if they come in late - maybe it’s just for the sake of humiliation. At least maybe he’ll build some muscle?), but Hwitaek and Hyojong are - Hyojong pretends to kick Changgu in the shins and Changgu smiles and nods. Hyojong’s a bit of an oddball, so he’s probably not serious about the kicking, but he’s also popular enough that if he actually is serious, he could make Changgu’s life hell. Not that he would. Probably.

Changgu stops overanalyzing after a moment, though, because She appears. She’s wearing a cute scarf with her school uniform, and matching earrings; it’s a good look. She lifts her backpack and steps into line. Changgu tries not to stare like a creep.

He fails, of course. Worse, She notices. She gives him a Look (™) and he averts his gaze. He holds out for maybe three seconds before glancing over again, just for a bit. Mentally, he’s slapping himself in the face the whole time, but it’s really hard to avoid looking at Her. Her hair is really nice today, and- he stops himself before any more trains of thought can leave the station. He concentrates on the fact that one of his shoes is untied. It distracts him for long enough that the bell signaling the end of first period almost comes as a surprise.

He gets a tap on the head and stern admonishments from the math teacher and the history teacher for spacing out in class that day. He definitely was not daydreaming about going on a romantic walk with Her and holding hands. No way. Nope.

**********

Changgu sighs. Staying after school to finish his programming project had been a good idea in theory, but he’d lost track of time, and he hadn’t brought dinner or even a snack with him. He checks his phone - still no texts from his mom. She was supposed to pick him up ten minutes ago. Has she forgotten, or is she just busy?

He wanders around a little, keeping his phone in hand, and eventually finds himself near the dance team’s practice room. The light is on, even though it’s late in the evening. He approaches the door - maybe the lights got left on by accident - but stops when he sees that someone is inside.

Then he realizes that it’s Her. She’s the captain of the dance team, after all, and She has to practice somewhere, so it makes sense, but he’s still a little shocked for some reason. Maybe it’s just the fact that She’s right here in front of him and there’s no one else around. He could say hi without other people judging him for being awkward-

She turns around and meets his eyes through the glass door. Instantly, he dives out of sight and presses his back against a wall.

Maybe it’s not just the presence of other people that’s the problem.

He gathers his courage and peeks into the practice room again. It looks like She’s finishing up, gathering Her things, and he considers going in for a brief moment before a boy enters the practice room from another entrance. He’s vaguely familiar - medium height, round cheeks, confident aura - but Changgu can’t quite call his name to mind. The boy goes over to Her and asks something, smiling, and She nods and bounces a little with an equally big smile. They proceed to leave together.

Changgu’s never been inside the practice room before, and they’ve left the lights on, which is as good an excuse as any to go in. He opens the door and cautiously steps inside. 

It’s a little underwhelming, to be honest - he expected it to be kind of fancy, but it’s a bit dingy and rundown, the same as the rest of the school. As he’s looking around, though, he notices that She’s left Her phone on a little table to the side of the main dance area. The phone’s music app is still open, paused at the beginning of a song.

An idea manifests in his head. He can listen to the song and check out the band when he gets home, and then tomorrow - or whenever he manages to psych himself up for it - he’ll ask Her about the band and they’ll have an actual conversation topic, and it won’t be awkward, and he can get to know Her a little better and maybe he won’t be overwhelmed with crippling anxiety next time She looks at him, and he can eventually work his way up to telling Her how he feels. 

He puts in the earbuds and presses play. The song is upbeat and fun, a great dance track. He’s closed his eyes and is bopping a little when, suddenly, the earbuds get ripped out of his ears. He opens his eyes and finds himself face-to-face with the boy from earlier, who, at the moment, looks pretty pissed off. She’s there too, frowning a bit. The boy snatches the phone away from Changgu and hands it to Her, then turns and walks out with Her, shooting a dirty look at Changgu before closing the door behind him. The lights shut off.

**********

_\- Talent - Passion - Teamwork - School Spirit -_  
_\- Calling All Students: Now’s Your Opportunity To Join The Dance Team! -_  
_\- Tryouts In The Practice Room Thursday And Friday From 4-6 PM -_

Changgu clutches the audition flyer like a lifeline as She walks up to him. She seems unaware of his distress as She says, “So, what brings you here?”

“Um.” He swallows. “I’m here for the, uh, dance team tryouts? I wanted to sign up…” He flinches a bit as the practice room door opens. Hopefully She doesn’t notice.

The boy from the Practice Room Incident (as Changgu’s been referring to that evening) pokes his head out into the hallway and sighs when he sees Changgu. “Here to try out?”

Changgu nods and holds up the flyer. The boy opens the door all the way, beckoning for them to come in, and addresses Changgu again. “I’m Hyunggu, the team’s vice-captain. I’ll be helping Chungha noona manage the tryouts.”

“Good to meet you. I’m Changgu.” Changgu bows. Hyunggu’s first impression of him was… not great, to say the least, so he’s going to have to work extra hard to make up for it, starting now.

The practice room is much more lively than the last time Changgu was here. There are at least six people standing around holding flyers, and a couple members of the dance team - including Hyojong and Hwitaek - sitting on the floor and playing round after round of rock-paper-scissors. It’s a pretty cheerful atmosphere, actually. He starts to relax a bit. Maybe this won’t be as bad as he thought.

It’s worse.

He gets called up first, for whatever reason, and he thinks he’s dancing pretty well, until he hears someone snicker. Every time he looks up, he sees another person laughing at him - most of them are trying to hide it, but there are a few who don’t even make an effort. Hyunggu looks at him like he’s a squished slug baking on the sidewalk, and when Changgu finally finishes dancing and looks at Her, all he sees is a mix of pity and amusement.

Hyunggu tells him he can go as soon as he’s done. He doesn’t make eye contact with anyone when he leaves.

**********

He spends the next week and a half hiding from the dance team, hiding from Hyunggu, and, most importantly, hiding from Her. He goes to school on time, eats lunch on the back stairs or in the janitor’s closet, doesn’t hang around after class, and walks home instead of taking the bus. He even tries not wearing his glasses so that no one will recognize him, but he gives up on that after the first day when he trips on a step he didn’t realize was there and almost breaks his skull.

Eventually, Hyojong and Hwitaek corner him on the basketball courts after school lets out for the day. He’s made a habit of hiding there during the general rush to escape and coming out to go home when there are fewer people around to notice him, but he failed to consider that someone might seek him out and confront him in his hiding spot. A major tactical error.

Now Hyojong’s casually leaning against a wall while Hwitaek stands by the gate, blocking off the exit, and Changgu has nowhere to go.

Things are dead silent for a minute or two. Changgu wonders if he could just vault over Hwitaek’s head and make his escape, but decides that the answer is probably no.

Finally, Hyojong speaks up.

“So, you want to get on the dance team?”

It’s so far from what Changgu expected to hear that it takes him a moment to process the question, but as soon as it registers, he nods.

Hyojong pushes himself off the wall and stretches. “I can help, if you want. I’ll teach you how to dance.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah.” Hyojong shrugs. “You’re not skilled, but you have some potential. If you wanna learn, you could get good pretty quick. Hwitaek hyung thinks the same thing.” He gestures at Hwitaek, who nods and gives a thumbs-up.

It feels a little disingenuous to claim he wants to learn to dance when he actually just wants to impress a girl.

But he really, really wants to impress Her.

So he agrees to get lessons.

**********

Hyojong and Hwitaek are very different dance teachers, but their cheer-squad roles are the same. Every day, they’ll lead Jinho and Yanan - Changgu doesn’t remember when those two started watching his lessons, they aren’t even on the dance team, but they’re fun - in cheering when Changgu does something well or fake-booing at him when he messes up, and whichever of them didn’t teach him that day will buy snacks or ice cream or milk tea for the group (except when Jinho exercises his rights as oldest hyung and buys instead).

Honestly, this is the happiest Changgu has been in years.

They’re hanging out on the front steps of the school after class and discussing movies when Changgu hears Her - Chungha - laughing nearby. He’s been thinking less about her these last few months, preoccupied with dance lessons and hanging out with his new friends. He looks over to see what she’s laughing about.

She’s walking with Hyunggu, who’s showing off some fancy dance moves. As Changgu watches, Hyunggu does a little double-spin jump and lands perfectly, then slings his arm around Chungha’s shoulder with a grin. She giggles up at him. He cracks some joke and laughs, and then they’re out of sight.

Someone taps Changgu’s arm. It’s Hwitaek - he smiles a little and offers Changgu a stick of gum. Changgu accepts it, but honestly, he’s so lost in thought that he doesn’t even notice the flavor.

**********

Hyojong holds the door open. “C’mon. We don’t have all day.”

Changgu doesn’t move, still fidgeting with his hoodie strings. Jinho, Hwitaek, and Yanan gather around, offering reassurance. 

“You can do it.” Hwitaek smacks Changgu’s butt. “I believe in you!”

Yanan nods. “You’re way better than you were before. I think you’ll make it.”

Jinho just hands Changgu his water bottle and smirks. “Kill it.”

“Okay. Let’s go.” Changgu straightens his shoulders and walks into the practice room. The others follow him in a little group. It looks like the whole rest of the dance team is here too, rather than just Chungha and Hyunggu. 

That’s fine. This way he can prove himself all at once.

Hyojong steps up to Chungha and Hyunggu. “Here’s the potential new team member.” He gestures toward Changgu. “Like I said, he’s pretty decent, he just hasn’t really worked with a team before.”

“What?” Hyunggu snorts a little. “He auditioned already this year, and he definitely didn’t make it onto the team.”

“Give him a chance, alright?”

Hyunggu folds his arms. “Sure. Impress me.”

Hwitaek starts the music, and Changgu steps into the center of the floor and starts dancing. He goes for a minute or two, remembering all the things Hyojong and Hwitaek drilled into his brain, but the music stops abruptly before he’s done. He looks over to see Hyunggu with the speaker system remote, eyes narrowed, staring at him.

Hyunggu puts the remote down and walks over. He looks Changgu over before saying, “Okay, so you learned a dance. Maybe you worked on the same sequence nonstop for however long, but just because you learn one dance doesn’t mean you’re a dancer.”

Changgu starts to speak up, but Hyunggu cuts him off. “Are you a fast learner? Can you adapt? Do you work well with others? Are you dedicated? Do you actually want to perform? Can you push past your limits? That’s what a dancer is. It’s not just someone who learns a choreo to be cool and popular.”

When Changgu is silent for a few seconds, Hyunggu rolls his eyes and turns to go.

“I want to dance.”

Hyunggu turns back around with a frown.

“I want to dance,” Changgu repeats. He glances at Chungha before going on. “Yeah, at first I wanted to be cool and popular. But I actually really like dancing, and that’s why I’m here.” He steps closer and looks Hyunggu right in the eye. “I’ll prove to you that I’m willing to work hard and persevere for the team.”

Hyunggu steps back. Looks at him for a couple seconds.

One of the members of the dance team - a tall, scrawny boy - pipes up from the other side of the room. “You two should have a dance battle.”

“We should have a what now?” Hyunggu looks totally thrown off by now.

“A dance battle. Like, a mini competition. If he wins, he gets to be on the team and if you win you get to decide, that type of thing.”

Another member says, “I like Wooseok’s idea, but, like, let’s make it more interesting. If Changgu wins, he gets Hyunggu’s place on the team, and if Hyunggu wins, Changgu has to commit seppuku or strip in front of the whole school or something.”

“Let’s, uh, _not_ make it more interesting,” Hwitaek says quickly. He turns to Chungha. “Do you want me to take Shinwon out back and shoot him or something?”

Chungha shakes her head, laughing. She composes herself quickly, though, and asks, “Would you two actually like to have a dance battle? I could get behind the idea - without the ‘more interesting’ part, that is.”

Hyunggu still looks unsure, but he nods, and Changgu shrugs.

“Okay, it’s official. Dance battle. Go.” 

Everyone in the room gathers around the two of them, and someone starts playing a song over the speaker system. It’s the track Chungha had been listening to on the day of the Practice Room Incident.

Hyunggu steps up first. He does an impressive sequence of moves - Changgu knows a lot of the easier ones by now, though, he’s practiced them enough that they’re burned into his memory, so on his turn, he puts a couple of them together with some of the harder moves he’s learned recently. There’s some sounds of approval from the others. Hyunggu looks like he might be starting to lose his cool.

Hyunggu goes again, and in the middle of a fancy spin, he loses his balance and falls to the ground. 

A couple of people laugh, but as Changgu watches, he realizes that he doesn’t feel any kind of malice toward Hyunggu. He’s popular and Changgu isn’t, and he’s dating the girl Changgu’s been crushing on since before he even knew her name, but he’s dedicated and passionate and even seems like he might possibly be a nice person; there’s no real reason to hold a grudge against him.

However, that’s not going to stop Changgu from trying to win the dance battle.

He takes a deep breath and starts the exact move Hyunggu just botched.

Right arm in front. Left arm goes behind. Right foot over there. Turn. Build momentum. Brace.

Spin.

Land. Feet steady. Balance.

He’s done it perfectly.

He lets himself just breathe for a moment before looking up. The entire dance team is staring at him. Hyunggu is standing aside, either furious and trying to hide it or reevaluating his personal biases (hopefully the second). And Chungha…

Chungha is right in front of him, looking him in the eye. He almost flinches away out of reflex, but he stops himself and meets her gaze instead. She smiles.

“Welcome to the team,” she says, and holds out her hand.

Changgu shakes her hand and grins. He’s ready to be friends.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first time posting a fic and I'm a little nervous, so please don't be mean <3 I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> I really wanted to have Hongseok and Yuto in here, but the music video focuses almost entirely on Changgu, Hyunggu, and Chungha... I managed to get most of them at least a little screentime, but I couldn't fit all of them in. They are on the dance team though!
> 
> Thanks for reading!  
> (I have a tumblr @/hui-ing)


End file.
